Amid unrelenting heat, frustrations rise for tens of thousands still without power

By the CNN Wire Staff

Updated 0313 GMT (1013 HKT) July 3, 2012

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Fatima Domingpe applies sunscreen to her face near the Mosaic Fountain in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland, on Saturday, July 7. A record heat wave has been in the area for more than a week.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Ten-year-old Lilly Hwang-Geddes, left, of Ithaca, New York, plays in a fountain at the Yards Park on Thursday, July 5, in Washington.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Six-year-old Spencer Hwang-Geddes of Ithaca, New York, cools off at the Yards Park on Thursday. Weather forecast predicted the hot weather will last through Sunday with possible daily triple-digit temperatures.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – A boy enjoys the waterfall in the Yards Park fountain on Thursday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Chilren play in the fountain away form Thursday's scorching temperatires at the Yards Park.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Shannon Mack and Bobby Rush keep cool with their dog, Bubba, in a pool at their apartment in Chicago on Wednesday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Keshyra Pitts, 7, plays in the spray of a hydrant in Chicago on Wednesday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Lori Bryant holds her 7-month-old nephew Justin Tackett as Marianne Oliver cools him down during the Fourth of July parade in Downers Grove, Illinois.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Residents find relief from the heat at the McCarren Park pool in Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday, July 3.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Abbi Buck, of Cookeville, Tennessee, gulps a bottle of water as sweat drips down her face as she visits the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Tuesday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Katie Kiang finds shelter from the heat to study for the Graduate Record Examinations inside an air-conditioned mall in Silver Spring, Maryland, on Monday. Kiang's home is one of the thousands without electricity after storms hit hard.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Gene Holmes splashes into a quarry lake after jumping from a rope swing on Monday, July 2, at the Beaver Dam Swimming Club in Cockeysville, Maryland.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Without electricity to operate the pumps at his gas station in Silver Spring, Maryland, Ken Duckson fills a cooler with ice he cannot sell because his cash registers will not work.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Aziz Taylor, 11, plays in a water fountain Monday in the Capitol Heights neighborhood of Washington.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Lifeguard Niko Garcia jumps into a pool in Washington on Monday to try and beat the heat wave gripping the nation.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – A boy plays in a water fountain in Washington on Sunday, July 1, amid a record-setting heatwave in the eastern United States.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Bryan Moran sprays his dog, Rocky, with water in Washington's Columbia Heights on Sunday. Eastern cities were forecast to approach or break record-high temperatures.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Linda Gordon, right, finds relief from the extreme heat with an ice pack in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday, June 30.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Residents crowd onto the beach at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York, in the powerful heat on Saturday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Beachgoers lie in the sun at Coney Island on Saturday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – A boy plays in the ocean at Coney Island on Saturday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Workers brave the high heat to repair a storm-damaged roof at the Park Tanglewood apartments in Riverdale, Maryland, on Saturday.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Beads of sweat roll down Francisco Hernandez's face as he works to repave Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Friday, June 29.

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Extreme heat strikes U.S. – Children play in the water at Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta, where temperatures topped 100 degrees on Friday.

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Story highlights

Mayor of Charleston, West Virginia, reports damage after storms

About 1.7 million people are still without power in 10 states and Washington

The continued power outages are causing traffic headaches and safety concerns

At least 19 people are dead from storms fueled in part by the heat

Even as temperatures ticked down, barely, in some places Monday, frustrations rose for hundreds of thousands still sweating without power days after destructive heat-driven storms hit.

About 1.7 million people scattered from the District of Columbia through 10 states from Indiana to Delaware had no electricity by 8 p.m. Monday.

That was more than half those initially left in the dark Friday night and early Saturday. The total included about 410,000 in West Virginia, 400,000 in Ohio and 340,000 in Virginia. Power and government authorities said some may not get power back until week's end.

"While I want to thank them for their progress, they need to move faster," said Mayor Vincent Gray in Washington, where about 43,000 Pepco customers were without power.

"Pepco's pace of restoring power to me, anyway, is unacceptable. And the speed of their response is disappointing. How many times have we been through this before?"

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Storms, heat causing problems nationwide

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At least 16 people were killed from Ohio to New Jersey in the derecho -- or massive storm usually with straight-line wind damage -- while another three in North Carolina died in fresh storms Sunday.

"It was the scariest thing I've ever been through," CNN iReporter Mark Cohen said from Mays Landing, New Jersey, where the storms damaged his property and knocked out power. "Just to give you an idea, it was somewhere between a movie and a disaster ride at a park."

Hundreds of thousands were still coping Monday with days of relentless blistering weather and without air conditioning.

Pools were packed to start the week, as were libraries, malls and other places that still had power and the ability to keep things cool.

In and around Charleston, West Virginia, locals have been packing supermarkets and filling up nearby hotels in a bid to ride out the storm's aftermath and no electricity in homes, Mayor Danny Jones said.

"Up in the hills, there were so many trees down and the transformers were all tangled in the trees," said Jones, who is living in his garage with his two sons and still assessing the massive storm. "It was scary," Jones said.

Traffic lights remain out in many hard-hit locales, including around the nation's capital, causing yet another reason for headaches.

"A lot of detours, a lot of lights that are out (and) some that are spotty," said Larry Simmons, a frustrated commuter in southern Maryland. "A lot of congestion, a lot of discourteous drivers."

Some have found a silver lining thanks to neighbors, community leaders and others who have gone out of the way to help each other.

But kindness only goes so far.

"We like the sense of community, but we would like our power back -- just because it is so hot and we'd like to get back to normal, if we possibly can," said storm victim Bill Danvers in the Washington suburbs.

Cities and towns in the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and Southeast have endured temperatures in the high 90s and above 100 degrees since, in some cases, the middle of last week. It's all part of a system tied to the breaking or tying of more than 2,238 hot weather records nationwide between June 25 and July 1, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

And it won't necessarily let up anytime soon. The National Weather Service is warning of "dangerous heat" topping 100 degrees through Saturday in places including St. Louis, while it should still very much feel like summer for most of the country's eastern two-thirds through Independence Day and perhaps beyond.

"Hot and hotter will continue to be the story from the Plains to the Atlantic Coast the next few days," the weather service reported Monday. "Widespread excessive heat warnings and heat advisories have certainly decreased in coverage, but temperatures will remain well above average across a large portion of the U.S."

It's all made for many uncomfortable moments.

Yet many like Phi Ley, an Arlington, Virginia, resident who came back from a vacation to a roasting house with no power, are just trying to roll with the punches.